23 October 2016

Brussels, 21 October 2016 - After
investigative journalists have revealed the severe short-comings of Maersk’s
shipbreaking practices in Alang, India, the shipping giant blatantly disregards
the findings. In an official statement, Maersk defends its new practice of
breaking ships on Indian beaches with tooth and nail without even mentioning
the grave concerns raised by the Danish journalists [1]. Maersk's strategy
seems to be to draw a veil of silence on the bad conditions in Alang whilst
trying to squirm themselves out of other scandalous revelations. These include
the recent illegal export of their heavily contaminated floating oil production
and storage tanker “North Sea Producer” from the UK to Bangladesh and the uncovering
of Maersk’s secret contracts that incentivised business partners to sell
chartered ships for scrap to the worst yards.

After many years of proudly recycling its
end-of-life ships in modern ship recycling yards, Maersk now tries to make the
world believe that truly sustainable ship recycling off the beach is not
affordable. The world’s largest container ship owner comes forward with this
misleading statement while its competitor Hapag Lloyd makes it very clear: the
German container ship line stays true to its commitment to clean and safe ship
recycling off the beach in EU-approved facilities. Also ship owners from other
sectors have been doing very well with their uncompromising approach to ship
recycling, including Wilhelmsen, Wallenius, Hoegh, Grieg, CSL and Royal Dutch
Boskalis.

“Maersk’s cant on their competitiveness is
ludicrous: whom do they want to fool when they say that the company would risk
its existence if it continued to recycle ships in state-of-the-art facilities?”
asks Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
“If smaller shipping lines are able to do it, why not the world’s largest ship
owner? It is a question of properly accounting for the true costs of recycling
throughout the life-cycle of a ship. We expect Maersk to ensure sound financial
planning and long-term investments rather than short-term profit maximisation
at end-of-life.”

Maersk defends its U-turn from
state-of-the-art facilities in China towards the beaches in India with the
argument that it will assist the Alang yards to improve their standard. As a
matter of fact, Maersk has not invested in any infrastructure in the Alang
shipbreaking yards - they have even been warned that such investments might be
a dead-end and too costly compared to using available docks or slip-ways. When
asked, the company is consequently not able to put a number to its investments
in Alang. All that Maersk has done is to write up a standard on paper and to
employ staff in Alang to supervise its implementation. The Danwatch
investigation has shown that Maersk’s yard, Shree Ram, is unable to live up to
that standard and that Maersk’s presence at the yard has not helped to rectify
the situation.

“Maersk keeps reeling off its narrative that
shipbreaking is a significant employer in India. If workers in India are really
their main concern, then why has Maersk not fixed the most basic things first:
contracts for all workers, decent accommodation for all, adequate personal
protective equipment – before putting its ships on the beach?” asks Heidegger,
“How can they call shipbreaking ‘superior’ in an area that does not even have a
hospital to treat severely injured workers? The truth is: it is all about
profit over people.”

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has been
calling on Maersk to return to truly sustainable ship recycling and to invest
in a model facility off the beach that is able to recycle its estimated 75-100
end-of-life ships under the high standards for environmental protection and
occupational health and safety that have been deemed necessary under European
law. Only then would Maersk be able to pride itself with supporting decent jobs
in the ship recycling sector. “The answer is not on the beaches of India,
Bangladesh and Pakistan. The answer lies in innovation and engineering
solutions for 21st century ship recycling: India might be ready, the beaches of
Alang are not”, says Heidegger.

NOTES

[1] Four main Maersk claims that Danwatch has
proven wrong:

According to Maersk, its environmental
recycling plan foresees that most of the vessel is dismantled without the ship
parts being in contact with sand or water. The Platform and other critics have
been arguing that the facilities lack large industrial cranes that can be
deployed along the side of the ship. Cut sections therefore need to crash down
onto the beach and the intertidal zone. During their research at Shree Ram, the
journalists found cut sections that had been dropped into the intertidal zone,
and were even cut down right on the sand. The claim of ‘no contact between cut
parts and sand or water’ remains a myth. Apart from the negative environmental
impact of the gravity method, Maersk does not at all address the scraping of
toxic paints during the beaching process and the release of heavy metals, such
as copper, into the environment.

Maersk claims that appropriate protective
equipment is available and mandatory to use. While the journalists have not
checked whether PPEs are available, they have found that adequate protective
equipment is simply not used. Workers welding and torch-cutting at Shree Ram
were found wearing highly inflammable cotton T-shirt, inadequate or no
respiratory protection, no goggles and no hearing protection. The
investigations have found that the Maersk supervision on the ground is unable
to ensure basic occupational health and safety measures.

The journalists interviewed ten workers that
are employed at Shree Ram. They workers have clearly identified that they work
on the demolition of the Maersk Georgia and the Maersk Wyoming. None of them
had a contract or any written document concerning their employment
relationship. None of the men were aware of their rights. Maersk claims that
all Shree Ram workers have contracts and has not been willing to respond to the
findings.

Maersk is aware of the fact that not all of
Shree Ram workers are offered decent housing. The shipping giant has accepted
this situation when selling the Maersk Wyoming and the Maersk Georgia without
demanding basic infrastructure for workers as a precondition for doing
business. Similarly, Maersk accepts the lack of a proper hospital at Alang
where severe injuries could be treated.